How CIA deepens Mexico’s cartel crisis |
With the latest reports about US intelligence support in Mexico, one wonders whether the so-called “war on drugs” is quietly morphing into something far more dangerous. The CIA (plus the FBI and even ICE) reportedly provided intelligence that has directly enabled lethal operations against Mexican cartels, including drug lord El Mencho (Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes), the recently killed leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
The CIA in fact is known to have been conducting covert operations in Mexican territory for years, but the CIA-aided killing of El Mencho clearly marks a new phase. The cartel has retaliated against Mexican forces turning Jalisco and other Mexican states into a war zone.
Thus far, Washington insists what it is doing in neighboring Mexico is merely “assistance,” framed within bilateral cooperation. Be as it may, even if one takes such statements at face value, this marks a qualitative shift. Intelligence sharing of this kind inevitably means deeper penetration, more assets on the ground, and a growing reliance on covert methods. Escalation is to be expected, therefore.
One may recall that this is hardly the first time the CIA has embedded itself in Latin America’s criminal underworld under the banner of higher strategic goals. It does not always happen in a clear “good guys versus bad guys” script, though. During the Cold War, US intelligence notoriously played both sides in the continent, tolerating or even facilitating........